Author Topic: Purchasing a laptop (again) ... help (Read 290 times)

aknimitz · « **on:** April 20, 2002, 08:21:55 PM »

Well, my wife and I are looking to purchase a laptop again. Its gotta be inexpensive < $1300 as the first criteria. I was hoping some of you might have comments on some of the laptop mfctrs ... namely Toshiba, Compaq, Gateway and Dell.

I am terribly disappointed with Dell ... no point in really going into it. I've owned a Gateway (still do actually) and it worked great for three years. But, I've heard Gateway is on the way down. I dont know crap about Toshiba and Compaq laptops. Also, should I be considering an iMac? We dont have macs in the house, but my wife is the primary user and it would be neat for her I suppose.

Comments please? Suggestions on a laptop please!?

Nim

AKDejaVu · « **Reply #1 on:** April 21, 2002, 11:27:43 AM »

I've used a dell and an IBM... IBM wins hands down.

That said... the iBooks do look pretty good.

AKDejaVu

aknimitz · « **Reply #2 on:** April 21, 2002, 12:37:03 PM »

hehe ... I said cheap

IBM is stupid expensive. Just ordered another Dell ... they are the only mfctrs that sell an accident warranty to cover against spills. Well, I think Toshiba did ... but Gateway, IBM, Sony - did not.

Nim

Maverick · « **Reply #3 on:** April 21, 2002, 01:39:21 PM »

I have had experiance with Compaq. While it did and does work it required MANY and frequent patches. I feel they were borderline on false representation. The "high speed internet modem" the box touted was in reality a 28 to 33k modem that actually ran slower that 28k most of the time. I timed it on the same line, same server with a desktop 56k for comparison. The desktop ran 48 to 49 avg. and the Compaq ran 28 to 32k on the internal modem. (not an external card modem). Modem was propriatary from Compaq so I couldn't get different drivers.

The processor on the info said Pentium but when I started up the machine it was a non pentium processer, can't think of the name off the top of my head.

The web site for help has an active bbs, they need it due to the problems they have with the systems, and it is frequented by many customers and techies.

Best advice I have is to get the absolute highest performing components you can, as much memory as you can and biggest HD you can afford on a laptop.

Good luck

AKIron · « **Reply #4 on:** April 21, 2002, 03:32:56 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by AKDejaVu
I've used a dell and an IBM... IBM wins hands down.

That said... the iBooks do look pretty good.

AKDejaVu

Think Dell is a good choice. Always hated those Thinkpads.

lord dolf vader · « **Reply #5 on:** April 21, 2002, 08:45:31 PM »

sold compaqs, sonys, toshibas for years all have had their problems. compaqs are universaly bad machines. i could write pages but they are a horrible company. all in all buy a ibm they seem to be the best engineered over all. sonys are second. dell is slightly better than gateway . but with dell its what you pay there are crappy dells i have seen . but never a crappy ibm .

bikekil · « **Reply #6 on:** April 22, 2002, 04:41:46 AM »

I'm working on HP Omnibook laptops... XE3, 500, 6100
unfortunatelly dunno US prices, but i can recommend you this

if it's for your wife, you can try Omnibook 500

if you want to have all in one (no matter how it looks) try XE3. If you want to play games on it, try Omnibook 6k series

i never had any tech problems with them...

Manxer · « **Reply #7 on:** April 22, 2002, 01:06:32 PM »

All notebook suppliers have good and bad products. If you let me know what type of performance and price you're looking for, I'll see what I can find out. Just buying a system because of the name is a bad idea, because most of them have different levels of quality depending on which you purchase.

Manxer · « **Reply #8 on:** April 22, 2002, 01:08:24 PM »

If you've never seen a crappy IBM, you've never seen one of the 600 series with the old Mwave combo garbage. That was a long time ago though.

Hangtime · « **Reply #9 on:** April 22, 2002, 04:50:18 PM »

I got an old Thinkpad 770.. bout 4 years old. Pentium 266 processor. Bought it used on ebay for 300.00, with all acessories and a leather case. I spent another 200 on a DVD drive and a magri DVD card, and blew the RAM up to 128meg. Every possible accesory you can think of is availible fer cheap on ebay; awsome product support and manuals are on the IBM sites.

This old machine sits on my 34 foot sailboat.. in a salt water maritime enviornment it runs an interface between my GPS and my Combi autopilot with a charting program. When it ain't telling me where I am or where I'm going or how much longer it's gonna be till we get there, it's playing DVD movies, muisc CD's or games to keep the kids un-bored.

It's never failed to boot, never crashed, has been soaking wet at least twice, dropped a half dozen times.. in short, I'd never think of buying any laptop in the future that didn't say IBM on it.

streakeagle · « **Reply #10 on:** April 22, 2002, 05:14:06 PM »

I have a lot of experience with various Toshibas at work starting with a Satellite 315CDS (Pentium 200 MMX).

I love them. Never had a problem that I didn't cause. I love the little joystick nub for mouse control. It is so much faster and more precise than those touch pads and track balls for those people if you have any dexterity at all. I haven't used a modern Toshiba (1 GHz plus cpu), but I can only hope they haven't changed their quality.

When I get around to getting my own laptop, there is a good chance I will get a Toshiba myself if they have stayed as good as they were and still have the mini-joystick for the mouse.

Ddriag · « **Reply #11 on:** May 04, 2002, 03:52:45 PM »

I've just bought a Toshiba Satellite 5100, P4 1.6 with a Geforce 440 vid card and it's the dogs trousers. I bought it with the insurance money for my now dead motorbike after a Volvo driver chucked a uey into my path last month. In the UK, the best sellers are either Toshibas's or Dells, and I are certainly happy with mine.